Ten subtle ways your followers will fall in love with you
Mastery Den, Tuesday Edition, 4.5-min read.
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Very few of us will be exempt from the necessity to build a personal brand in the coming years.
Whether running your own startup or building an audience who read your books, your online persona is becoming a significant asset.
Those brands who will succeed for a long time know how to nurture deep loyalty.
Here’s how to develop sticky, loyal, and loving followers, subscribers and customers:
Be uncommonly dedicated to your followers.
Those who have abruptly killed their reputations or whose brands disappear from view often prioritise their own short-term gains over serving their people.
Those who build long-lasting and loving audiences genuinely care for their supporters.
They engage in the comments. They ask questions. They listen.
They are dedicated to understanding and supporting those who support them.
Share things about you that many would hide.
Despite being so networked-up, people are yearning to connect with other humans in a real way.
People are looking for others with whom they resonate.
No one truly connects with a perfect human or an AI. And so, by revealing some of your flaws and struggles, past and present, you reveal your humanity.
This will crystallise your connections.
Be unexpected.
You can deliver the highest-quality service and content to your followers, but if you become predictable, you will lose your magic.
Predictability is like camouflage, and developing an audience who are excited to hear from you requires you to be continually surprising.
Anticipate what people think you will do next, and then do something else entirely.
Stop looking for approval.
Two things happen when content creators prioritise gaining validation and approval for their work.
They soon give up because inevitable criticism hurts them.
Their audience can sense when they are trying to impress because it comes off try hard.
Instead, focus on providing genuine value, even if it isn’t to everyone’s liking.
Let your passion for the craft come through.
There is little more refreshing and engrossing than watching someone immersed in the flow of their work.
Whether it’s Messi on the football pitch or enjoying the simple depth in the words of Paolo Coelho, your passion can be felt.
When we’re out of our heads and into the physicality of the work, we draw people into the magic of it.
Demonstrate some finesse for trends.
In personal branding, some things are deep-rooted and unchanging, while others evolve.
Showing awareness of trends and modern fashions, whether it’s speaking the lingo, using tasteful design, or ‘getting’ memes, is a part of building a sticky following.
It does depend to a degree on your audience, but if you can’t adapt, many will resist your rigidity.
Be relentlessly dedicated to improvement.
Your people need to see that you care about doing things better today than they were done yesterday.
They are being served — like a hotel guest is served, after all.
If you are merely committed to staying the same, the colour will drain from your brand. People will dissipate.
Be a courageous leader.
You’ll notice those with large, highly motivated and loyal followings often lead from the front with courage.
They do hard things, whether speaking about challenges most people avoid, fighting for a cause, or showing up when most want to stay in bed.
Be the inspiring warrior your followers are looking for.
Be consistent as F.
As someone said, who I forget, ‘repetition is persuasion.’
Every time we share a piece of content or speak our mind publicly, we take a bet on ourselves.
This is felt by those watching you.
When you share your views for hundreds of days without backing down, you’re communicating loud and clear:
‘I believe in what I’m saying and what I’m here for.’
This garners increasing trust and respect.
Have a sense of humour.
It’s not necessarily about simply being a goofy joke-telling clown that people are looking for.
Life is chaotic, frequently bleak, and often scary.
People need someone willing to keep things light in the face of darkness.
Those who can find humour when others just want to complain are often admired.
Thanks for reading.
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'Despite being so networked-up, people are yearning to connect with other humans in a real way.'
Yeah, I'd add that it's because people are too digitally connected, that they feel the need for more genuine interactions with other humans.
Good points, Alex.
Great post, Alex. I think there is something to be said for passion. It's passion that intrigues people and draws them to you. If you don't have that, the result is a watered-down attempt at a thing but it never really connects. Passion could also make some of the other points you mentioned easier, too.